The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-08-26

waters, or perhaps asphyxiated by want Of
air. All Of these and many other modes of
death presented themselves to my magma
ton as / lay at tho bottom of the canoe listen
ing to the swirl of the hurrying waters, which
ran whittier we knew not. One other sound
only could / hear, and that was Alphonses
intermittent howl Of terror coming from the
center of tho canoe, and oven that seemed
faint and unreal. Indeed the whole thing
| overpowered my brain, and began TO be-
| lieye that was the victim Of some CHASTITY,
spirit shaking nightmare.
CHAPTER X.
THE ROSE OF FIRE.
On wo ilew, drawn by the mighty current,
| till at last noticed that the sound of tho
water was not half so deafening as it had
been, and concluded that this must be be-
| cause there was more room for the echoes to
dispense in. could now hear Alphonses
bowls much more distinctly; they were made
I'D of the oldest mixture of invocations to
the Supreme Power and the name Of his be-
| loved Annette that ii is possible to conceive;
and, in short, though their evident earnest
ness saved them from profanity, were, to say
the least, very remarkable Taking up a
paddle, managed to drive it into his ribs,
whereon he, thinking that the end had come,
howled louder than ever Then slowly and
cautiously raised myself on my knees and
stretched my hand upward, but could touch
no roof. Next took the paddle and lifted it
above my head as high as l could, but with
| the Same result l also thrust it out laterally
to tho right and left, but could touch nothing
except water Then l bethought mo that
there was in the boat, among our other re-
manning possessions, a bulls eye lantern and
q tin of oil. l gropcd about and found it,
! and having match on me. carefully lit it.
and as soon as the flame had got hold or tho
wick turned it on down the boat. As it
happened, tho first thing tie light lit on was
the white and scared face Of Alphonse, who,
thinking that it was all over at last, and that
he was witnessing preliminary &C.
lestial phenomenon, gave terrific yell,
and was with difficulty treasured with
the paddle. As for the other three, Good
was lying on the flat of his back, his eye
| glass still liked in his eye, and gazing blankly
into the upper darkness. Sir Henry had his
head resting on the thwarts Of tho canoe, and
with his hand was trying to test the speed OF
| the water. But when the beam OF light Tell
upon old Umslopogaas / could really have
laughed. / think have said that we had put
a roast quarter Of water buck into the canoe.
| Well, it SO happened that when we all pros
trated ourselves to avoid being swept out OF
tho boat and into the water by the rock roof,
| Umslopogaas' head had come down uncom'
monty near this roast buck, and so soon as he
| had recovered little from the first shock OF
| our position it occurred TO him that he was
| hungry. Thereupon he coolly cut off n chop
| with Inkosi-kaas, and was now employed in
eating it, with every appearance OF satlsiac,
| ton. As ho afterward explained, he thought
that he was going ION long journey" ano
preferred to start on a full stomach. IL re
minded me of the people who are going to be
hanged, and who are generally reported IL
the English daily papers to have made "ar
excellent breakfast"
As soon as the others saw that / had man
aged to light up the lamp, we bundled
| Alphonse into the farther end OF the canoe
with a threat, which Gained him wonder
| fully, that if he would insist upon making
the darkness hideous with his cries we would
put him out of suspense by sending him tC
| ioin tho Wakwafl and wait for Annette IL
another sphere, and began to discuss thu
situation as well us we could. First, how
ever, at Goods suggestion we bound two
paddles mast fashion in the bows, so thai
| thew might give us warning against any
sudden lowering of the roof OF the cave OF
water way. 1t was clear to us that we were
in an underground. river, or, as Alphonse de
fined it, "main drain,n which carried Off Tho
the superfiuous waters of the lake. Sucl
rivers are well known to exist in many part
of the world, but it has not often been thu
| evil fortune of explorers to travel by them
That the river was wide we could clearly see
for the light from the bulls eye lanter
failed to reach from shore to shore, although
occasionally, when the current swept us eithei
70 one side or the other, we could distinguish
the rock wall of the tunnel which, as far a
we could make out, appeared to arch abou
twenty-five feet above our heads. AS for th'
the current itself, it ran, Good estimated, a
least eight knots, and fortunately for us was
as is usual, fiercest in the middle OF thu
stream. Still, our first act was to arrang'
| that one of us with the lantern and poll
there was in the canoe should always DO il
the bows ready, If possible, to proven
US from being stove in against TIN
side of the cave or any project
ing rock. Umslopogaas, having already
dn.ad, took the first turn. This was abso
lutel I, with one exception, oil that we coulC
do towards preserving our safety. The ex
ception was that another of us took up pc
sition in the stern with paddle, by means O
which it WIN, possible to steer The canoe NOR
or less. and 70 keep her from the sides of TIN
cave. These matters attended to, we made
somewhat spariIAg meal off the cold buck
meat for we did ISt know how long it nigh
have to last us; AMI then feeling in rathe
better spirits, I gav9my opinion that, seriOu